A STORIED AMERICAN INSTITUTION IN DECLINE, DECLINES

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

“Harvard declines to remove Sackler name from museum and campus building”

Harvard lacks the moral clarity to make a change according to this reportage.

“To many of us — students, staff, and faculty — it is unacceptable and deeply offensive that we are represented by the Sackler name…”

“The Sackler family owned and controlled Purdue Pharma, the former manufacturer of OxyContin. The prescription painkiller has played a central role in the US’s deadly opioid epidemic which has seen more than 500,000 overdose deaths over the last twenty years.”

YET …“Arthur M Sackler’s legacy is complex and debatable…”

“Arthur Sackler shares responsibility for the opioid crisis due to his having developed aggressive pharmaceutical marketing techniques that others misused after his death.”

WHO GAVE HARVARD UNIVERSITY A MANDATE?

“It’s time that Harvard stand by their students and live up to their mandate of being a repository of higher learning of history and an institution that embodies the best of human values.”

1

[[ : an authoritative command

especially. : a formal order from a superior court or official to an inferior one ]]